Investigating the link between managers' green knowledge and leadership style,and their firms' environmental performance: The mediation role of green creativity

Despite extensive literature on green hotel management and sustainability, scant attention has been given on the role of managers to solve environmental related issues. This study's aim is to assess the effects of managers' green knowledge and green transformational leadership on firms' environmental performance with the mediating effect of green creativity. The study analyzes the perceptions of 363 employees in different managerial positions of the hotel industry employing Partial Last Square Structural Equation Modeling. The findings of the study show a positive effect of green knowledge and green transformational leadership on green creativity and green transformational leadership on environmental performance. Furthermore, green creativity is also found to have significant mediating effect between green knowledge and environmental performance, and green transformational leadership and environmental performance relations. The main implication of the current research is that managers' green concerns might help the stakeholders in the hotel industry to respond through appropriate green initiatives for their organizations. Further suggestions for literature and practice are discussed.     

Corporate commitment to climate change action,carbon risk exposure,and a firm's debt financing policy

Motivated by the rising consensus that corporate engagement in climate change actions holds the key for society's transition into environmentally resilient economy, the study examines whether a firm's commitment to climate change action and its carbon risk exposure shape the firm's debt financing policy. Based on insights drawn from signaling, corporate reputation, and agency theories, we develop models that link corporate commitment to climate change actions and a firm's carbon risk exposure with its debt financing decisions. Using data drawn from S&P 500 companies, for years 2015 to 2019, we find a robust evidence that firms that engage in higher levels of commitment to climate change actions issue a higher proportion of debt with longer terms to maturity, even after controlling for their carbon risk exposure. However, we do not find a robust evidence corroborating an association between firms' carbon risk exposure and their debt financing policy. These findings are consistent with arguments that high-commitment firms enjoy positive reputation, better credit rating, and reduced agency and information asymmetry costs, allowing them to gain easier access to long-term debt markets.     

Policy preferences of experts seeking to raise and stabilise farm incomes in the Eastern Gangetic Plains

Poverty is endemic in the highly populated Eastern Gangetic Plains where agriculture is critical to more than half the population. However, the mechanisms to support agriculture for development are contested. For example, some have advocated a strong role for government support and assistance due to market weaknesses, while others have promoted the need for more market-oriented approaches. We use an elicitation process focussed on expert policymaking communities, employing stated preference techniques to explore these options. Differences in perceptions about the effectiveness of policies and their delivery are reported between countries, while also empirically examining the influence of the respondents' organisational background. The results show support for policies that improve farmers' access to inputs, especially when delivered by private sector actors. The research provides an important contribution to the literature on policies for agricultural development.     

Vicarious warfare and dynamic efficiency of companies in the aerospace and defence industry

This study explores the economic performance that vicarious warfare can bring for the aerospace and defence industry. First, this study measures the performance of 22 companies using a nonradial dynamic data envelopment analysis model from 2011 to 2017. Second, this study evaluates whether vicarious warfare can influence the performance. The efficiency analysis suggests rooms for improvements meanwhile, the projection analysis suggests that market value should be significantly increased, and the number of employees should be reduced significantly. The regression analysis suggests that the number of times a country takes a side in wars would positively affect the efficiency of companies.     

Shrinkage Estimation Strategies in Generalised Ridge Regression Models: Low/High-Dimension Regime

In this study, we suggest pretest and shrinkage methods based on the generalised ridge regression estimation that is suitable for both multicollinear and high-dimensional problems. We review and develop theoretical results for some of the shrinkage estimators. The relative performance of the shrinkage estimators to some penalty methods is compared and assessed by both simulation and real-data analysis. We show that the suggested methods can be accounted as good competitors to regularisation techniques, by means of a mean squared error of estimation and prediction error. A thorough comparison of pretest and shrinkage estimators based on the maximum likelihood method to the penalty methods. In this paper, we extend the comparison outlined in his work using the least squares method for the generalised ridge regression.     

A fuzzy goal programming approach to analyse sustainable development goals of India

Energy policy, environmental planning and economic development play a key role in sustainable development. Sustainable development requires suitable and strategic policies satisfying multiple and conflicting objectives. Fuzzy goal programming (FGP) is a well-known approach in multi-criteria decision-making for its practical application. In this article, a FGP approach is proposed to analyse environmental, energy and sustainability goals of India by the year 2030 with reference to the key economic sectors of India. The presented model analyses the improvement opportunities, requirement of efforts and implementation of the sustainable development plans. Numerical illustration is also provided for validation and application of the proposed model.     

How successfully China has applied the OECD principles of corporate governance: a critical assessment

This paper attempts to critically analyze how successful China has been in applying the OECD principles of corporate governance. In doing so, assessment has been made in light of the six core issues of the OECD principles. A satisfactory level of progress has been noted in China’s legal and regulatory framework since the 1990s. New laws, regulations, and rules have been enacted, existing ones have been amended, and all the required institutions have been built accordingly in order to ensure good corporate governance practices in the country. However, there are still bottlenecks in terms of the enforcement of these laws, regulations, and rules mainly due to the various structural limitations in the Chinese administration and judiciary. The paper argues that China should now move forward with an accelerated enforcement agenda in the area of corporate governance in order to make China Inc. more competitive and sustainable.     

CONDITIONAL HETEROSKEDASTICITY AND THE WEEKEND EFFECT IN S&P 500 INDEX FUTURES

Conflicting results have been reported regarding the existence of a weekend effect in S&P 500 index futures. Given the numerous evidence in recent research that asset returns are affected by conditional heteroskedasticity and have fat-tailed distributions, this paper re-examines the existence of a weekend effect in S&P 500 index futures by using a GARCH model. The results generated by the new methodology support the conclusion of Cornell (1985) that there is no weekend effect in S&P 500 index futures.     

Book Reviews

Howard Dick, The Indonesian Interisland Shipping Industry: An Analysis of Competition and Regulation, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1987, pp. 217. Paper: US$15.00; Cloth: US$23.00.

Anne Booth, Agricultural Development in Indonesia, Sydney, Wellington and London: Allen and Unwin, 1988, pp. 295 + iv.

Arthur van Schaik, Colonial Control and Peasant Resources in Java, Amsterdam; University of Amsterdam, Institute For Social Geography, 1986, pp. 210.

Joan Hardjono, Land, Labour and Livelihood in a West Java Village, Jogyakarta: Gadjah Mada University Press, 1987.

W. Röll and A. Leemann, Agrarprobleme auf Lombok: Untersuchungen zur Wirtschafts- und Sozialstruktur in Nusa Tenggara Barat, Indonesien (Agricultural Problems on Lombok: Studies of Economic and Social Structure in West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia), Hamburg: Institut Für Asienkunde, 1987, pp. 300.

Hal Hill (ed.), Unity and Diversity: Regional Economic Development in Indonesia Since 1970, Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1989, pp. 610 + xxx. Cloth: A$65.00.

C. P. Timmer (ed.). The Corn Economy of Indonesia, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987, pp. 302. Cloth: US$32.95.

Thee Kian Wie, Industrialisasi Indonesia: Analisa dan Catalan Kritis (Indonesian Industrialisation: Analysis and Critical Notes), Jakarta: Pustaka Sinar Harapan, 1988, pp. 276.

David Joel Steinberg (ed.), In Search of Southeast Asia: A Modern History, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2nd Ed., 1987, pp. 590 + xi.

Geoffrey B. Hainsworth, Innocents Abroad or Partners in Development? An Evaluation of Canada-Indonesia Aid, Trade and Investment Relations, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Field Report Series No. 15, 1986, pp. 100

BRIEFLY NOTED: Ronald G. Petocz (Compiler), The Ecology of Irian Jaya: A Preliminary Bibliography, Halifax N.S., Canada: School For Resource and Environmental Studies, Dalhousie University, 1988.     

Empirical Investigation of the Ability of Sensitivity of Stock Prices to Earnings News in Predicting Earnings Management and Management Forecast Errors

This paper presents an evidence that a firm’s Sensitivity of Stock Price to Earnings News (SSPEN), as measured by surplus stock demand over its supply, affects on incentives to manage earnings and, in turn, Management Forecast Errors (MFE). In particular, we find a tendency for firms rated a Sell (Buy) to engage more (less) frequently in extreme, income-decreasing Earnings Management (EM), indicating that they have relatively stronger (weaker) incentives to create accounting reserves especially in the form of earnings baths than other firms. In contrast, firms rated a Buy (Sell) are more (less) likely to engage in earnings management that leaves reported earnings equal to or slightly higher than management forecasts. The result of empirical evidence from Iranian firms in Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) showing the existence of a meaningful relationship between SSPEN and EM. Generally, SSPEN can be used to predict EM and Forecast Errors (FEs).